Highlights from Kansas University's football Spring Game on April 24, 2010. The Kansas Blue Team won 14-10.

The QB throws a ball deep down the sideline for Matthews, who makes a great adjustment on the ball to bring it in before running to the end zone for a 37-yard touchdown. Nice play by Matthews, who looks like he'll find the field in some fashion because of his athleticism.

White 10/Blue 7 — 9:26 left in game

Outstanding play by cornerback Calvin Rubles, who breaks in front of an out pattern, catches a Jordan Webb pass, then taps a foot inbounds for the interception. Tertavian Ingram didn't do a great job of coming back to fight for the ball.

White 10/Blue 7 — 11:36 left in game

Conner Teahan checks in at quarterback and receives the loudest applause of the day. He completes a pass to Omigie, but on fourth down has a throw in heavy traffic knocked away.

White 10/Blue 7 — 17:07 left in game

Quarterback Jacob Morse with his first action. The running clock is making this second half go quickly.

White 10/Blue 7 — 22:30 left in game

A KU football tradition continues: A large rush of fans leave at halftime.

Opurum with one of the best runs of the day, bulling over Tyler Patmon for a six-yard gain.

Postgame interviews and some highlights from the KU football team's Spring Game on April 24, 2010.

The next possession, Quigley breaks free on the right sideline for 25 yards. Great block by tight end A.J. Steward to break Quigley for the long run.

White 10/Blue 7 — Halftime

For those of you wondering, here were the first teams on both sides:

Offense

OL Tanner Hawkinson

OL Brad Thorson

OL Jeremiah Hatch

OL Trevor Marrongelli

OL Jeff Spikes

QB Kale Pick

RB Angus Quigley

WR Bradley McDougald

WR Daymond Patterson

WR Johnathan Wilson

TE Tim Biere

Defense

DL Travis Stephens

DL Richard Johnson Jr.

DL Kevin Young

DL Patrick Dorsey

LB Justin Springer

LB Jacoby Thomas

LB Steven Johnson

CB Chris Harris

CB Calvin Rubles

S Lubbock Smith

S Phillip Strozier

White 10/Blue 7 — Halftime

Branstetter misses a 45-yard field-goal attempt with three seconds left to take us to halftime.

White 10/Blue 7 — 1:11 left in 2nd quarter

A little razzle-dazzle by KU, as Pick keeps the ball on a fake end-around. He floats a pass that appears to hang in the air too long, but the 5-foot-7 Sands skies to catch the pass over a defender and also save the interception. Sands is pumped about it, too, jumping up to high-five Pick.

White 10/Blue 7 — 4:19 left in 2nd quarter

Jacob Branstetter knocks through a 36-yard field goal from the right hash. The drive stalled when Webb received heavy pressure up the middle and had to release the throw quicker than he wanted to.

Blue 7/White 7 — 8:36 left in 2nd quarter

Quinn Mecham goes in with the blue squad, but after picking up a first down, he has a floating pass intercepted by Linton. The freshman returns it 30 yards before getting shoved out of bounds.

Blue 7/White 7 — 11:09 left in 2nd quarter

Pick and Webb trade three-and-outs. Christian Matthews goes back as a punt returner. The coaches seem to have a lot of plans for Matthews this season.

Blue 7/White 7 — 13:35 left in 2nd quarter

Kale Pick answers, delivering a deep ball in stride to Chris Omigie deep down the field for a 73-yard touchdown pass. Omigie high-steps into the end zone, and we'll see if KU coach Turner Gill talks about that after the game. Safety Dexter Linton was the one burnt on the play.

Blue 7/White 0 — 14:55 left in 2nd quarter

Webb makes a play by himself offensively, scrambling away from pressure to his right before firing a bullet off his back foot to Biere, who brings it down in the end zone for a 20-yard score. To get that kind of mustard on a pass like that is impressive, regardless of level of football.

Blue 0/White 0 — End of 1st quarter

Webb switches to the Blue side. His favorite target is Beshears, who has caught a few passes in the flat and turned them into nice gains.

Blue 0/White 0 — 2:27 left in 1st quarter

Quintin Woods with a third-down sack. Webb's elusiveness and ability to get around defenders doesn't play well in a spring game when the QBs are sacked when they are simply touched.

Blue 0/White 0 — 4:00 left in 1st quarter

Kevin Young with a touch-sack. The defensive front seven has gotten some good push so far.

Young with another sack, this time on third-and-20. The defensive line is the story of the game so far.

Blue 0/White 0 — 7:10 left in 1st quarter

Darius Parish sacks Webb on third and long. Alonso Rojas comes in for his first punt. D.J. Beshears will return the punt.

Blue 0/White 0 — 8:56 left in 1st quarter

Travis Stephens touches Pick for a sack on fourth-and-10.

Jordan Webb starts for the White Team, even though the original roster had him on the Blue squad.

Blue 0/White 0 — 10:23 left in 1st quarter

On third-and-12, Pick completes a pass in traffic to Biere for 14 yards.

Also, KU's offensive players — much like last year — are still looking to the sideline before the snap to get the final play call.

Blue 0/White 0 — 11:45 left in 1st quarter

Deshaun Sands returns the opening kickoff. Could that be his role next year?

Kale Pick gets the first rep at QB for KU. Pick's first pass is a rollout completion to Tiim Biere for 21 yards.

12:55 p.m.

The new videoboard on the south side of Memorial Stadium should be a highlight for those folks coming to the game today. The board appears to be at least three times bigger than the old board, and the picture on the screen also is about as clear as you can get on a videoboard that large.

We haven't been given a depth chart up to this point in the spring. Quickly, let's look at the surprises I see from the depth chart below.

• Christian Matthews, WR

Just a couple weeks ago, Matthews was wearing a red jersey and competing for the quarterback spot. Now, he appears with the first unit of wide receivers. KU's coaches must be wowed by his athleticism to move him so high on the depth chart already.

• Randall Dent, DT

This 6-foot-5, 275-pound red-shirt freshman from Grand Prairie, Texas, has a short bio in the media guide. He was named the defensive scout team player of the week twice last season, and now, he's with the first team in a crowded position battle on the defensive line.

• Erick McGriff and Chris Omigie, WRs

These red-shirt freshmen have received their share of hype — and deservedly so — but as of now, they haven't appeared to crack the first team just yet.

• Justin Puthoff, FB

He appears with the first-team on offense at fullback over Steven Foster. Puthoff switched from tight end to fullback during spring drills.

12:10 p.m.

Here is the format for today's game:

• First half will feature two, 12-minute quarters

• Halftime will be 20 minutes

• Second half will consist of one, 25-minute running-clock period

12:05 p.m.

Welcome back to the Newell Post Live, coming to you from Memorial Stadium where the Kansas football team is preparing for its annual Spring Game — the first under new coach Turner Gill.

The Blue and White rosters have been selected. From looking at the roster, it appears the blue squad on offense is the first unit, while the white squad on defense is the first team.

Here are their rosters. An asterisk indicates that person will play for both the Blue and White teams. The players are listed in no particular order.

Comments

Outside of the Blue offense, it looks like a pretty mixed bag. He obviously wants to get the timing together for the top QBs and skill positions. Defensively he's made no mystery of the fact that he wants guys who can...

Jesse, I sort of disagree about the Webb pass for a TD. I felt it had more touch on it than zip, but maybe the replay shows something else.

I also felt that Pick had a much better presence of the pocket than Webb. Webb seemed to get in trouble more with the rush than Pick who seemed to naturally float away from the rush even when it wasn't in his field of vision.

As for the crowd leaving at half, it did start to rain/sprinkle and the cold wind was picking up. Not saying that was the main reason for most people leaving, but I definitely feel that it played a factor.

d_prowess — I'll have to watch the replay, too. I was impressed most because he was floating to the sidelines and also because he was throwing off his back foot and a bit across his body. It's kind of like a shortstop going to his right to field a ball, then firing across his body with a strong throw to get an out. Like I said, I'd need to watch it again to say for sure it was on a direct line, but I was impressed with the throw because it's the kind of pass that lots of quarterbacks get in trouble with.

Even after saying that, it's clear that Pick had the better day of the two.

Webb looks very much like Reesing out there, and I think he'd come along nicely if he ended up starting, but like Reesing the lack of speed makes him less dangerous when the play breaks down. On the other hand, Reesing always had trouble in Spring games because his style was to wait until the rusher was almost on him, then dodge at the last second when the rusher had no chance of changing direction. This works in live football, but often would count as a sack against him in a touch football situation. Webb seemed to be having the same problem, and I think that he'd be much better in full contact.

Pick; however, stole the show. He had a very nice balance of keeping his eyes down field, yet recognizing when his best chance to make yardage was to take off. One of Reesing's biggest flaws was to force the pass even at times when he had enough running room. Meier's biggest flaw as a QB was to take off running too quickly and not give the play a chance to develop. Pick did an incredible job of striking a balance between the two. He made excellent running yardage considering that it only took a touch to call him down and kill the play. Several of his runs would have gone for serious yards as the guys that touched him often had no chance of actually bringing him down, and he also had a few "sacks" against him that definitely wouldn't have been sacks in a full contact situation.

Both offensive lines did a good job of pass protection, but will still need work on run blocking (no surprise there).

Plenty of options for WR / TE. Biere should have a big year as he does a great job of positioning his body to create a big target. Omigie showed a good combination of speed and strength (new Kerry Meier???). Patterson and Beshears should add some great electricity. Christian Mathews also did a great job of positioning himself on his touchdown grab.

The defensive backs played nice and tight, and both defenses seemed to react instantly. Seeing players that weren't constantly out of position or looking lost was one heck of a sight for sore eyes.

The linebacker play was a pleasant surprise. They did a great job of stringing out plays to the sideline, and did a great job of tackling in the open field.

The defensive line did a solid job of disrupting the backfield, but it's difficult to access their real effectiveness as it only took a touch on the QB to stop the play.

Both offenses struggled to move the ball on the ground, but we saw flashes of brilliance from Angus Quigley, Rell Lewis, and Deshaun Sands. Quigley hits like a ton of bricks as he always has and kept his pads nice and low, yet has the speed to get outside that is lacking in a bigger back like Opurum. Look for Opurum's carries to go down this year as this looks like it's finally Quigley's time to shine. Deshaun is very quick and should make a nice change of pace with much more elusiveness than we've become accustomed to with Sharp.